It’s been nine years since her NCAA career ended.
But that hasn’t kept Guelph’s Jade McGarr away from the ball diamond, competing all these years later and earning a spot with Team Ontario at the USSSA Challenge Cup in Florida last month.
Called “The Olympics of Slo-Pitch,” the tournament brings together high-level athletes from across Canada and the United States.
“It’s always special to wear, whether it says Canada on the front, or Ontario, provincial or nationally, it’s amazing to be able to do that,” the former Guelph Gator said.
“It always feels like an honour to wear that jersey and represent the province, and do it alongside some really awesome and talented women.”
The team finished 4-3 in the women's C division, earning 205 points which was good for fifth place.
The soon-to-be 31-year-old keeps a pretty busy lifestyle.
She works as a fire service instructor with the private Toronto Pearson Fire and Emergency Services Training Institute (FESTI), located in Mississauga.
But when she isn’t training future firefighters, she plays in the Slo-Pitch Ontario Super Series, a series of weekend tournaments held each summer through the province.
Her Ladybirds finished atop the Women’s A division with 81 points last year.
The competition has been an outlet for her to continue on in sport, after her four years at Wayne State University ended in 2016.
“You kind of feel like you lose a small part of yourself because it has been your identity for so many years,” McGarr said. “Once I was finished at Wayne State, I was trying to find either another women’s fastball league, or I was just trying to find something to kind of keep that in my life still.”
She said she was pleasantly surprised to find the slo-pitch world, and the level of competition.
There was a slight difference – most notably the speed of the ball going to home plate – and there is a timing adjustment to get used to as a batter.
“Typically every at bat, there’s going to be a ball hit,” McGarr said. “It’s a very defensive game, which I really love about it. Obviously you should be getting a hit most of the time that you’re up to bat as well, so it definitely makes things a little bit more interesting, it’s a bit of a different game versus fastball.
“It’s been really refreshing to kind of bring that back into my life a little bit more since finishing at Wayne State.”
Her name hasn’t been forgotten in the hallways of her alma matter.
To this day, McGarr’s name still appears among the best Wayne State University softball players ever.
Throughout her four-year NCAA Division II career (2013-2016), she was a monster hitter and a mainstay at third base.
Here is just a snippet of where she stands in her school’s history:
- .379 batting average (8th)
- 256 hits (T-7th)
- 35 doubles (T-20th)
- 113 runs scored (15th)
- 119 runs batted in (T-9th)
- 220 games played (T-14th)
She hit above .400 in her final two years and finished her career with an honourable mention All-America recognition.
Nowadays, she has shifted to the outfield, utilizing her speed and ball tracking ability to make plays.
Her ability as a utility player is just another tool in the tool belt she has picked up over the years, in sport and in life.
From starting the game as a four-year-old, transitioning off tee ball and playing rep at age seven with the Guelph Gators, going through that system until she was 18 and beginning with Wayne State.
McGarr said she is incredibly grateful for a life of sport, and specifically softball.
“It essentially made me into who I am, and the amazing people I’ve met along the way also helped mould me,” she said. “It teaches you so many key attributes and characteristics that you need to be successful when you get older, discipline and drive, determination, accountability, it teaches you leadership.
“There’s so many great things that sport gives to a person, and I truly attribute a lot of that to why I’m in the position I am today and the success that I had throughout my softball career.”
